It tells a lot about the gap between how advanced we can get to how long it takes to implement it by the government

In which country? The US?

Probably. New Jersey wants COBOL volunteers to help with mainframe during Covid-19 response, as per:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22782866

Also covered in The Register:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/05/new_jersey_seeks_co...

interesting